what is loft by the wretch who feeks them in the mine; who lives excluded from the common bounties of nature; to whom even the viciffitude of day and night is not known, who fighs in perpetual darknefs, and whofe life is one mournful alternative of infenfibility and labour? If thofe are not happy who poffefs, in proportion as thofe are wretched who beftow, how vain a dream is the life of man! and if there is, indeed, fuch difference in the value of existence, how fhall we acquit of partiality, the hand by which this difference has been made?

WHILE my thoughts thus multiplied, and my heart burned within me, I became fensible of a sudden inAluence from above. The Atreets and the crouds of Mecca difappeared; I found myself fitting on the declivity of a mountain, and perceived at my right hand an angel, whom I hnew to be Azoran the minister of reproof. When I faw him, I was afraid. I caft mine eye upon the ground, and was about to deprecate his anger, when he commanded me to be filent.

" Al

"met," said he, "thou haft devoted thy life to medi"tation, that thy counfel might deliver ignorance from "the mazes of error, and deter prefumption from "the precepice of guilt; but the book of nature thou haft read without understanding. It is again open "before thee; look up, confider it and be wife."

I LOOKED up, and beheld an inclosure, beautiful as the gardens of Paradife, but of a small extent. Through the middle, there was a green walk; at the end, a wild defart; and beyond, impenetrable darkness. The walk was fhaded with trees of every kind, that were covered at once with blossoms and fruit; innumerable birds were finging in the branches; the grafs was intermingled with flowers, which impregnated the breeze with fragrance, and painted the path with beauty; on one fide floweth a gentle transparent ftream, which was just heard to murmur over the golden fands that spark. led at the bottom; and on the other were walks and bowers, fountains grottos and cascades, which diverfified the fcene with endless variety, but did not conceal the bounds.

WHILE I was gazing in a transport of delight and wonder on this enchantig fpot, I perceived a man ftealing along the walk with a thoughtful and deliberate pace; his eyes were fixed upon the earth, and his arms crossed on his bofom; he fometimes ftarted, as if a fudden pang had feized him; his countenance expreffed follicitude and terror; he looked round with a figh, and having gazed a moment on the defart that lay before him, he seemed as if he wished to ftop, but was impelled forward by fome invisible power; his features, however, foon fettled again into a calm melancholy; his eye was again fixed on the ground; and he went on, as before, with apparent reluctance, but without emotion. I was struck with this appearance; and turning haftily to the Angel, was about to enquire what could produce fuch infelicity in a being, furrounded with every object that could gratify every fenfe; but he prevented my requeft: The book of nature," "faid he,

is before thee; look up, and confider it and be "wife." I looked, and beheld a valley between two mountains that were craggy and barren; on the path there was no verdure, and the mountains afforded no fhade; the fun burned in the Zenith, and every fpring was dried up; but the valley terminated in a country that was pleasant and fertile, fhaded with woods, and adorned with buildings, At a second view, I discovered a man in this valley, meagre indeed and naked, but his countenance was chearful, and his deportment active; he kept his eye fixed upon the country before him, and looked as if he would have run, but that he was reftrained, as the other had been impelled, by fome fecret influence; fometimes, indeed, I perceived a fudden expreffion of pain, and fometimes he stopped fhort as if his foot was pierced by the afperities of the way; but the fprightlinefs of his countenance instantly retnrned, and he preffed forward without appearance of repining or complaint.

I TURNED again toward the Angel, impatient to enquire from what fecret fource happinefs was derived, in a fituation so different from that in which it might have been expected; but he again prevented my re

queft:

quest: "Almet," faid he, "remember what thou haft feen, and let this memorial be written upon the "tablets of thy heart. Remember, Almet, that the "world in which thou art placed, is but the road to "another; and that happiness depends not upon the "path, but the end: the value of this period of thy "exiftence, is fixed by hope and fear. The wretch "who wif hed to linger in the garden, who looked "round upon its limits with terror, was deftitute of enjoyment, because he was deftitute of hope, and was perpetually tormented by the dread of lofing that "which yet he did not enjoy: the fong of the birds "had been repeated till it was not heard, and the flowers had fo often recurred that their beauty was

not feen; the river glided by unnoticed; and ho "feared to lift his eye to the profpect, left he should "behold the waste that circumfcribed it. But he that "toiled through they valley was happy, because he "looked forward with hope. Thus, to the fojourner "upon earth, it is of little moment, whether the path "he treads be ftrewed with flowers or with thorns, if " he perceives himself to approach thofe regions, in "comparison of which the thorns and the flowers of "this wilderness lose their diftinction, and are both "alike impotent to give pleasure or pain,

"WHAT then has ETERNAL WISDOM un. "equally diftributed? That which can make every "station happy, and without which every station "must be wretched, is acquired by Virtue; and "Virtue is poffible to all. Remember Almet, the vi"fion which thou haft feen; and let my words be writ "ten on the tablet of thy heart, that thou may'ft di"rect the wanderer to happiness, aud justify GOD

"to men."

WHILE the voice of Azuran was yet founding in my ear, the prospect vanifhed from before me, and I found myself again fitting at the porch of the temple. The fun was going down, the multitude was retired to reft, and the folemn quiet of midnight concurred with the refolution of my doubts to compleat the tranquillity of my mind.

T4

SUCH,

SUCH, my fon, was the vifion which the PROF PHET Vouchfafed me, not for my fake only but for thine. Thou hatt fought felicity in temporal things; and, therefore, thou art difappointed. Let not inftruction be loft upon thee, as the feal of Mahomet in the well of Aris; but go thy way, let thy flock cloath the nacked, and thy table feed the hungry; deliver the poor from oppreffion, and let thy converfation be ABOVE. Thus fhalt thou "rejoice in Hope," and look forward to the end of life as the confummation of thy felicity, ALMET, in whofe breaft devotion kindled as he fpake, returned into the temple, and the stranger de parted in peace.

The Natural Hiftory of Ants.

[Guard, No 156. ]

IN one of my papers I fuppofed a molehill, inhahited by Pifmires or Ants, to be a lively image of the earth, peopled by human creatures. This fuppofition will not appear too forced or ftrained to thofe who are acquainted with the natural history of these little infects; in order to which I fhall present my reader with the extract of a letter upon this curious fubject, as it was publifhed by the members of the French academy, and finçe tranflated into English. I mult confefs I was never in my life better entertained than with this narrative, which is of undoubted credit and authority.

IN a room next to mine, which had been empty for a long time, there was upon a window a box full of earth, two foot deep, and fit to keep flowers in. That kind of parterre had been long uncultivated; and therefore it was covered with old plaifter, and a great deal of rubifh that fell from the top of the house, and from the walls, which, together with the earth formerly inbibed with water, made a kind of a dry and barren foil. That place lying to the South, and out of the reach of the wind and rain, besides

the

the neighbourhood of a granary, was a moft delightful fpot of ground for Ants; and therefore they had made three nefts there, without doubt for the fame reason that men build cities in fruitful and convenient places, near fprings and rivers.

HAVING a mind to cultivate fome flowers, I took a view of that place, and removed a tulip out of the garden into that box; but cafting my eyes upon the Ants, continually taken up with a thousand cares, very inconfiderable with respect to us, but of the ⚫ greatest importance for them, they appeared to me 4 more worthy of my curiofity than all the flowers in ⚫ the world.` I quickly removed the tulip, to be the admirer and restorer of that little commonwealth. This was the only thing they wanted; for their policy and the order observed among them, are more perfect than thofe of the wifeft republicks: and therefore they have nothing to fear, unless a new legiflą. tor fhould attempt to change the form of their govern

I MADE it my business to procure them all forts ⚫ of conveniencies. I took out of the box every thing that might be troublesome to them; and frequently ⚫ vifited my Ants, and ftudied all their actions. Being ufed to go to bed very late, I went to fee them work in a moon fhiny-night; and I did frequently get up in the night, to take a view of their labours. I always found fome going up and down, and very bufy: one would think that they never fleep. Every body ⚫ knows that Ants come out of their holes in the daytime, and expofe to the fun the corn, which they keep under ground in the night. Those who have feen ant- -hillocks, have easily perceived those small heaps of corn about their nefts. What furprised me at first was, that my Ants never brought out their * corn, but in the night when the moon did shine, and kept it under ground in the day-time; which was contrary to what I had seen, and saw still practifed by those infects in other places. I quickly found out the ' reason of it: there was a pidgeon-house not far from thence pigeons and birds would have eaten their

4 corn